PASSAGES FOR COMPARISON 



From the Symposium of Plato 

 • [The passage is thus summarized by Jowett: 

 'He who would be truly initiated should pass 

 from the concrete to the abstract, from the 

 individual to the universal, from the universal 

 to the universe of truth and beauty.'] • 

 • Diotima. . . . These are the lesser mysteries 

 of love, into which even you, Socrates, may 

 enter; to the greater and more hidden ones 

 which are the crown of these, and to which, 

 if you pursue them in a right spirit, they will 

 lead, I know not whether you will be able to 

 attain. But I will do my utmost to inform you, 

 and do you follow if you can. • He who would 

 proceed aright in this matter should begin in 

 youth to visit beautiful forms; and first, if he 

 be guided by his instructor aright, to love one 

 such form only — out of that he should create 

 fair thoughts. And soon he will of himself 

 perceive that the beauty of one form is akin to 

 the beauty of another; and then, if beauty of 

 form in general is his pursuit, how foolish would 



1 Plato, Symposium. The Dialogues of Plato, translated 

 by Jowett, New York, Oxford University Press, 1892, 1. 580- 

 582. 



[71] 



